Girl Scout Troop Uncovering Pet Graves At Humane Society

Project Bringing Buried Markers In Former Pet Cemetery To Light

One of the hundreds of grave markers uncovered by the girl scouts from Troop… (STEPHEN DUNN, Hartford…)

November 25, 2012|By CHRISTOPHER HOFFMAN, Special to the Courant, The Hartford Courant

NEWINGTON – — The gravestone is heart shaped with an inscription, a memorial to a dearly departed pet named Chickie.

"You will always be my love," reads the gray slate embedded in the earth. "I hope someday we will be together again."

Until last month, Chickie's gravestone — and about 1,000 like it — lay buried under dirt and grass behind the Connecticut Humane Society's headquarters on Russell Road. That's when Girl Scout Troop 10487 launched a community service project to unearth the memorials and clean up the pet cemetery.

Troop member Emily Carle, 13, said the project has been deeply satisfying.

"It purifies your soul," she said. "It's doing a good deed."

The troop came upon the old pet cemetery while looking for a Silver Project, a task requiring at least 50 hours of community service that Girl Scouts must complete to become senior scouts, Kamansky said.

The troop was exploring a walking trail behind the humane society when they realized there were hundreds of pet gravestones buried on the grounds, Kamansky said.

"You could feel the stones under your feet," she said. "Some you could see partially."

The troop approached the humane society about a project, and quickly settled on the scouts uncovering the graves and fixing up the cemetery, society spokeswoman Alicia Wright said.

"It was kind of a meeting of the minds," Wright said. "We all came up with this idea together. We're very, very appreciative."

Humane society chapters have a long tradition of allowing people to bury pets on their grounds, Wright said. The society has been at its Russell Road location for at least 40 or 50 years, but had to stop pet interments in the late 1990s because of space, she said.

As time passed, fewer people visited their dead pets and the grave markers began disappearing into the earth, she said. Kamansky estimates about 80 percent of the gravestones are now buried.

Uncovering the graves is no easy task. On a recent blustery day, the five girls doing the project stuck rods in the ground to locate stones and then carefully cleared away an inch or more of sod and dirt. Their work left tight rows of rectangular plaques set in raised grass and earth frames.

Sometimes the girls uncover a leash, as if the owner threw it into the grave as their dog was interred.

Kamansky said that row markers indicate grave locations were recorded, but no map has turned up so far. The oldest stone uncovered so far is dated 1934, with most from the 1960s, 1970s and later.

Asked the most interesting thing about the project, the girls answered in unison, "The names."

Pretty Boy, Mitzie, Chippie, Rascal, Tutu and Twinkle are among the more original and whimsical monikers. Others are predictable: Lassie, Bingo and Rex. No Fido yet, Kamansky said.

Then there are the odd and unusual ones. Several girls said their favorite so far is Simon Cat Daryl Duck. Others had more glorious names, such as Gaius Caesar and Lady Daisy von Fuller.

Kamansky said the girls have already devoted about 30 hours each to the project. They work at the cemetery about three days a week, 90 minutes on weekdays and two hours on weekends, she said.

There are still a significant number of graves to uncover, and the scouts will work until it snows, Kamansky said. They will return in the spring to landscape, she said.

Only a very few owners still visit – one regularly puts American flags at one gave, Wright said. Girl Scout Bella Pilkey said she hopes that changes as a result of her troop's work.

"I hope people whose dogs are here, they come back to see it," she said.